Thinking about buying an LR4 for Offroading/Overlanding

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TrinidadLR4

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I just came back from the Mid Atlantic Overlanding Festival in PA. My truck is a stock 13 but does have HD with a rear locker. I did a couple of mild trail rides on stock tires and got to use low range and mud n ruts mode. Came away impressed with how it performed with less than ideal tires. Also ended up sleeping in the back with both rows folded flat and now I am wanting to build a sleeping platform for the back, with drawers underneath for stuff. There were a couple more LR3s/LR4s there, including one identical to mine except with compos and an arb bumper, among other mods. Looked great. Got lots of good ideas on what to do next. I think for overlanding, this is a great vehicle.
 

cperez

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I just came back from the Mid Atlantic Overlanding Festival in PA.

I saw a bunch of photos of this including some of your Rover. Looks like it was a great time.

Basic question: When it's lights out, do you get in via one of the 2nd row doors, or through the rear hatch? I'm trying to visualize the logistics of getting in with potentially wet or dirty feet without trashing your bedding. It's the simple things!
 

speedkills

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Thank you for the detailed responses!
Regarding the lift, I found this youtube video. I don't know if this product is available in north America:
I dont know anything about it or really much about air suspensions in general.

These are available in the US. I have one on my LR4, works great. Surprisingly there is also a 2nd Italian company making a lift controller for these. Maybe Rovers are super popular in Italy?

https://www.mudtech4x4.com/en/anitas-suspension-unit/

I have both, the mudtech looks nicer in the interior and I prefer the install location but I ended up installing the LRP unit because it includes the ability to self-level when parked which is pretty nifty for camping.
 

Ben Myton

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I saw a bunch of photos of this including some of your Rover. Looks like it was a great time.

Basic question: When it's lights out, do you get in via one of the 2nd row doors, or through the rear hatch? I'm trying to visualize the logistics of getting in with potentially wet or dirty feet without trashing your bedding. It's the simple things!

I've slept in the cab on my LR4 and I agree with entry/exit through the second row doors. With the seats down the door still acts as a little mud room and you can slide your shoes into the gap that remains behind the front seats. Go in backwards and sit on the seat back, then swing your legs in.

Just remember to crack the windows if you don't want everything fogged up by morning.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
 

BigBriDogGuy

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I lived in Montana for several years as a younger man. I needed to drive down a couple mile long stretch of dirt access road to get to the main paved road and head into town (Helena). I would take the old 2-wheel drive truck and it was fine most of the time. In other words, I'm not unaccustomed to driving off pavement.

Then, this morning, while I am messing around with my new to me 2011 LR4 I take it down a dirt access road to see if I can get the diff to lock up. I went in w/o any special programs. Truthfully, conditions didn't merit any kind of "special program" but I just wanted to see what the rig would do. I put it into low and raised it selecting "rock crawl" to see if the rear diff would lock. No luck. (I later found out that the 4x4 display showed a rear lock that wasn't actually installed on my build.) However... as I was driving in the off-road setting I was like "Oh, ooooh, boy that really IS different!" It was like driving around in a totally different vehicle. I can see how a guy (or gal) might look for reasons to use the off-road features. They were actually a heck of a lot of fun.
 

f1racer328

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I lived in Montana for several years as a younger man. I needed to drive down a couple mile long stretch of dirt access road to get to the main paved road and head into town (Helena). I would take the old 2-wheel drive truck and it was fine most of the time. In other words, I'm not unaccustomed to driving off pavement.

Then, this morning, while I am messing around with my new to me 2011 LR4 I take it down a dirt access road to see if I can get the diff to lock up. I went in w/o any special programs. Truthfully, conditions didn't merit any kind of "special program" but I just wanted to see what the rig would do. I put it into low and raised it selecting "rock crawl" to see if the rear diff would lock. No luck. (I later found out that the 4x4 display showed a rear lock that wasn't actually installed on my build.) However... as I was driving in the off-road setting I was like "Oh, ooooh, boy that really IS different!" It was like driving around in a totally different vehicle. I can see how a guy (or gal) might look for reasons to use the off-road features. They were actually a heck of a lot of fun.
I have the locking rear but I do know the computer does a pretty good job at emulating a rear locker with the brakes if you don’t have it.

Most of the time you probably won’t even need a rear locker. Be lucky you have the full sized spare.
 

BigBriDogGuy

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My sense is the big challenge is finding a naturally and normally occurring set of circumstances where the off-road capabilities of the vehicle come into play. I live in western Washington State and it snows a couple weeks out of the year. Other than that, everything is pretty much paved and, if not, it's a maintained dirt access road (or gated and blocked off).
 

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